Thailand Nov 2004

[tobyscruff]

Thailand for 12nts, Bangkok 3nts, Phuket 2nts then 7nts on Mermaid 2 liveaboard. After 5nts of land we were dying to get on board, pick-up at 7pm boat brief dinner & set sail at 10pm. All other boats had been cancelled due to tropical storm. This boat 32m steel hulled & by the standards in Thailand was superb recommended . We had a rough overnight to Hin Dueng & the vis wasnt as good because of the storm however first dive dropped to see bed & a sleeping leopard shark lots of smaller fish but nothing too big, near the end of the dive we came upon 2 juvenile emperor angel fish ( blue & white circular pattern) these are so picturesque & i have only seen one in the Maldives until i visited a eagle display & visitors centre in Cheshire where they had at least 3 for sale in their fish tanks.............first dive leopard shark, juv emperor angel we couldnt wish for more.
We completed 2 days diving with a dive at Phi Phi isles beautiful setting but more speed boats than fish ferrying tourists to the the beach & isles. Sailed overnight to dock at Chalong bay 9am, some divers ended here only 4 of us on for the 4 nights to Similan Nat Park. Set sail after dinner at 10pm with a full 20 guests. The coral and fish life in Similans was a lot better lots of coral heads with loads of life , nudibranch small reef fish & millions of glass fish. Lots of dives were mainly boulders & rocks with lots of soft corals, sea fans & reef fish.
In summary in Thailand anything & everything is for sale (as we saw in the many fish restaurant counters & tanks) the fish life is very spread out similar to Redsea streatched over a distance. We viewed nearly a dozen leopard sharks an odd little nurse shark a few giant trevally lots of small critters i.e.nudibranch & lots of reef fish & corals, there is very few medium or large fish unless dining out. The boat was excellent the crew very good & the dive guides ( 1 spaniard, 2 Thais) were very pleasant & tendered to everyones ability (didnt restrict experience & allowed flexibility) . The last 3 years Salso (dive guide) has only seen 3 whale sharks each year & they view lots of Mantas Feb, Mar & April . Cost for diving was 990us & included 22dives, i will probably go back however In early part of the year to see the difference in fish life. Regards Toby.

[D.D.J]

hi
u lucky thing, sounds awesome and i bet that it was even better. i bet that ur wishing that u could still be there, ah well u have christmas to look forward to.

[Phoenix]

Despite the Similan Islands being declared a Marine Park there are no serious efforts to stop the fishing from going on, the park guards are more interested in collecting fees from divers. The number of liveaboard boads hitting the sites doesn't help much either, my mate has been guiding there for 3 seasons and he has noticed a decline in the marine life, particularly big stuff.

Ian